Email authentication is the manner in which we prove that an email is legit. That isn’t a fake, spam, or a malicious trap. It’s the collection of everything we do as email marketers to ensure that our emails are deemed legitimate by the recipient spam algorithms that guard the inboxes we hope to reach.
The better we authenticate our emails, the better we inbox. The better we inbox, the more conversions we create.
If we don’t complete technical configurations, the chances that spam filters will either quarantine or reject our emails drastically increase. This is something we want to avoid at all costs, especially considering that these technical configurations only need to be completed once, so it’s important to understand these configurations and what they do.
The two primary pieces of email authentication are Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM). Each of these authentication methods is applied to one of the two domains associated with your email sends. The first domain is referred to as the envelope-sender domain. This domain is not immediately visible to casual email users, but it’s important because it identifies the outgoing mail server sending your emails.
This double-authentication strategy allows you to prove beyond a doubt that you are a legitimate sender whose emails are not spam, phishing attempts, or anything else malicious. By using SPF and DKIM in combination, you’re able to put your best foot forward from the start, which makes adhering to subsequent best practices that much more powerful.
To learn more about Email Authentication, SPF and DKIM records, read the full blog written by our partner Act-On Software, here.
Need help with your own email deliverability or authentication issues? Contact us today.
